The Short History of a Prince (53 page)

They would never know him in Otten, and maybe if he got down to it he wouldn’t understand too many of them. The people in his town moved slowly and were afraid, not only of bigger highways, new
roads to the cities, but of change on general principle. What had been good enough for them was adequate for their children, no reason to put more tax dollars into a school that had worked since 1937. Change would be thrust upon them by state mandates, but they would not welcome it. It was sometimes difficult to identify the fearsome thing in a person or a community, and Walter guessed that if a few of his students could spot what was genuinely frightful he could say he’d done his job teaching literature. He would try to think of his solitary self, his loneliness, as that one best thing, shining with the stubbornness of the eternal flame, inside himself. If he never found a Julian he would probably find some roundabout way to be grateful for the longing, for the keenness of desire.

The future would come and come, constant and continuous as air. He’d walk down the streets in Otten, as time went on gradually wearing more and more clothes from the Farm and Fleet, along with his townspeople. He’d drink their coffee and occasionally hear their bright overstressed vowels in his own sentences. It might take a few years but eventually with the staging of the right musical comedy, with the success of a student or two, the people of Otten would begin to see him. In the meantime, they might feel the vibration, the sound of his own quiet voice echoing out into the town, the words he’d been saying since the beginning: I am among you.

JANE HAMILTON

Jane Hamilton is the author of
The Book of Ruth
, winner of the PEN/Hemingway Award for First Fiction;
A Map of the World
, a
New York Times
Notable Book of the Year and named one of the top ten books of the year by
Entertainment Weekly
,
Publishers Weekly
,
The Miami Herald
, and
People
magazine;
Disobedience
;
Laura Rider’s Masterpiece
; and
The Short History of a Prince
. She lives in Rochester, Wisconsin.

Books by Jane Hamilton

Laura Rider’s Masterpiece

When Madeline Was Young

Disobedience

The Short History of a Prince

A Map of the World

The Book of Ruth

BOOKS BY
JANE HAMILTON

THE BOOK OF RUTH

Ruth Grey lives in Honey Creek, Illinois, with her embittered mother, May, who lost her husband in World War II. After marrying at a young age, Ruth tries to fashion a new life with her husband, but she cannot escape the shadow of her captious and domineering mother. Winner of the PEN/Hemingway Foundation Award for best first novel,
The Book of Ruth
confronts real-life issues of violence and alienation but is also a stunning testament to the human capacity for mercy, compassion, and love.

Fiction/978-0-385-26570-6

DISOBEDIENCE

When seventeen-year-old Henry Shaw discovers that all is not as it seems with his ordinary midwestern American family—that, in fact, his mother is having a passionate affair—he is unable to tell anyone. Neither his amiable father, a history teacher, nor his slightly offbeat younger sister, a spirited girl obsessed with Civil War reenactments, has any idea that their world is about to change. Written with all the intelligence and empathy that has distinguished Hamilton’s writing,
Disobedience
is a brilliant novel that sheds new light on the nature of love and the ethics of disobedience.

Fiction/978-0-385-72046-5

A MAP OF THE WORLD

A Map of the World
is the riveting story of how a single mistake can forever change the lives of everyone involved—in ways that are beyond imagination. On one unremarkable summer morning, Alice Goodwin is watching her neighbor’s two small girls, as well as her own children. She absentmindedly steals a minute alone that turns into ten: time enough for a devastating accident to occur. Her neighbor’s daughter Lizzy drowns in the farm’s pond, and Alice— whose volatility and unmasked directness keeps her on the outskirts of acceptance—becomes the perfect scapegoat.

Fiction/978-0-385-72010-6

THE SHORT HISTORY OF A PRINCE

Walter McCloud is a boy with dreams unlike most. Introduced as a child to the genius of Balanchine and the lyricism of Tchaikovsky, Walter has always aspired to be a dancer. As he grows older, it becomes clear that despite his desire, he lacks the talent, and he faces the painful knowledge that his more gifted friends have already surpassed him. Soon, however, that pain is overshadowed when his older brother, Daniel, finds a strange lump on his neck and Walter realizes that a happy family can change overnight. The year that follows transforms the McClouds, as they try to hold together in the face of the fearful consequences of Daniel’s illness, and Walter makes discoveries about himself and his friendships that will change him forever. Decades later, after Walter has left home and returned, he must come to terms with the memories of that year, and grapple once and for all with the challenge of carving out a place for himself in this all-too-familiar world.

Fiction/978-0-385-47948-6

WHEN MADELINE WAS YOUNG

Jane Hamilton brings us a rich and loving novel about a non-traditional family in the aftermath of a terrible accident. When Aaron Maciver’s beautiful young wife, Madeline, suffers a head injury in a bicycle crash, she is left with the mental capabilities of a six-year-old. In the years that follow, Aaron and his second wife care for Madeline with deep tenderness and devotion as they raise two children of their own. Inspired in part by Elizabeth Spencer’s
Light in the Piazza
, Hamilton offers an honest and exquisite portrait of how a family tragedy forever shapes the boundaries of love.

Fiction/978-1-4000-9699-2

ANCHOR BOOKS
Available from your local bookstore, or visit
www.randomhouse.com

AN ANCHOR BOOK
PUBLISHED BY DOUBLEDAY
a division of Random House, Inc.
1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036

ANCHOR BOOKS, DOUBLEDAY, and the portrayal of an anchor are trademarks of Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc.

The Short History of a Prince
was first published in hardcover in the United States by Random House, Inc. The Anchor Books edition is published by arrangement with Random House.

Heartfelt thanks to the Ragdale Foundation, where much of this book was written, and to C.C. and Professor Jenkins of Northfield, Minnesota.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition of this book as follows:
Hamilton, Jane
The short history of a prince : a novel / Jane Hamilton. —1st ed.
p. cm.
I. Title
PS3558.A4428S56    1998
813’.54—dc21 97-31627

eISBN: 978-0-307-76407-2
Copyright © 1998 by Jane Hamilton

All Rights Reserved

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